U.s. Deporting 3 Accused Of Being Nazi Camp Guards

April 9, 1986|By New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Tuesday that it has begun deportation proceedings against three men accused of persecuting thousands of people and working as guards in Nazi concentration camps.

They also were charged with fraudulently obtaining American citizenship by concealing wartime activities on their immigration forms.

The men charged Tuesday were Martin Bartesch of Chicago, 59; Stefan Leili of Clifton, N.J., 76; and Josef Wieland of Burlingame, Calif., 77.

According to court complaints filed by the department, the three men were members of the Death's Head Battalions of the Nazi SS, or Elite Guard, in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.

The complaints said the three men ''participated in and personally assisted the Nazi program of persecution based on race, religion, national origin and political belief.''

''This program included the confinement, corporal punishment, torture, forced labor and murder of thousands of prisoners,'' the documents said.

Cases may be filed against other alleged guards now in the United States, a spokesman said.